Colleges fear fallout for Christian views

Christian higher education providers fear legal penalties for upholding a biblical view of marriage.

Johan Roux is the chief executive at Tabor College of Higher Education and the chair of the Australian Christian Higher Education Alliance.

Christian higher education providers — which teach 56,000 students and employ 2000 staff — have warned Scott Morrison that they could face legal penalties for upholding a biblical view of marriage under his plan to reframe ­religious freedom protections.

Coalition senators have also sounded the alarm, using a dissenting report to a Senate inquiry to argue that Attorney-General Christian Porter’s plan to better protect gay students from discrimination is flawed.

The dissenting report said the government’s plan to remove a key exemption to section 38(3) of the Sex Discrimination Act could compromise the normal operation of both faith-based schools and university educators.

The exemption allows an “educational institution” to discriminate against gay students in line with its tenets and beliefs, but is not used for this purpose. ­

Religious schools have said its removal could expose them to claims of direct discrimination for promoting a biblical view of sexuality, marriage and gender.

Johan Roux, chief executive at Tabor College of Higher Education in Adelaide, told The Australian the debate over the ­removal of section 38(3) had ­focused on the consequences for religious schools, but there were broader ramifications that could affect the operation of tertiary ­institutions.

Mr Roux said separate proposals from Labor and the ­Coalition — both of which are committed to the removal of section 38(3) — could prevent religious tertiary institutions from promoting their beliefs to students or disciplining those who undermined the beliefs and character of the college.

Labor plans to introduce its legislation today.

“This is a broader conversation with much broader implications than just schools, simply because of the fact that the same kinds of freedoms that schools currently enjoy are also being ­enjoyed by Christian tertiary ­educational institutions,” Mr Roux said.

“There’s around 56,000 students and 2000 staff each year (in the sector), which is a significant number. I think we also need to say that this is a growing ­industry.”

Greg Walsh, a senior lecturer at the University of Notre Dame Australia and author of Religious Schools and Discrimination Law, said parliament should not rush to change the laws.

“The leaked Coalition bill only provides protections to primary and secondary religious schools and fails to provide protections to tertiary institutions and other providers of education,” he said.

“A complete removal of the protections under the act may have many unexpected consequences that will undermine ­religious education.”

Partner at Prolegis Lawyers and adjunct associate professor at Notre Dame Law school Mark Fowler said the debate had been “conducted without any consideration of the impact on the thriving Australian faith-based tertiary education system”.